Alaska delegate delays convention by requesting new count
A delegate from Alaska requested the state’s vote tally be recounted, delaying the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night after Donald Trump had already secured the presidential nomination.
{mosads}House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) appeared ready to certify the results and declare Trump the nominee. But a delegate from Alaska protested, saying his state’s vote count had been recorded improperly.
Ryan huddled briefly with Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus on stage at 8 p.m. as scores of viewers were tuning into the convention on national television.
In an unscripted development, party officials agreed to individually count the votes for every Alaska delegate. An RNC official called out the name of each delegate and tallied the vote by hand.
The convention went into recess, with loud music blasting throughout the hall as the RNC conducted the poll.
Alaska should have given 12 votes to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), 11 to Trump, and five to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the delegate said. But the secretary of the convention allocated all of the delegates to Trump.
Priebus later explained that the rules give all of the votes to the only candidate still in the race.
Peter Goldberg, a delegate, said the state had been confused by how the original vote was tallied and the delegation insisted on a second tally.
He said that normally the state reallocated its delegates when a candidate drops out, but since GOP challengers suspended their campaigns instead of dropping out, those votes were never shifted to Trump.
After the vote was tallied, the state’s delegates celebrated, pleased they were able to extract a detailed tally from the RNC.
Both Washington, D.C., and Utah delegate chairmen told The Hill their delegations weren’t interested in following Alaska’s lead. Both those states attempted to report different results than those ultimately recognized by the RNC.
The convention then moved on to scheduled speakers, beginning with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
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